Organic Coffee – good for the environment and farmers alike.

Organic Coffee - good for the environment and farmers alike

Bird friendly. Fair trade. Organic. Shade grown. Rainforest Alliance.

What lovely phrases. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of something, whether as a retailer or consumer, that markets itself as, for example, bird friendly or fair trade? These are terms that the coffee industry loves to promote and that make consumers feel good when buying coffee so labeled.

In my opinion, these are all worthwhile and valuable certifications. What person of good conscience would not want to support the earth friendly practices that these labels promote? This is an age where everyone’s favorite color seems to be “green” and “sustainability” is the buzzword of the day.

However, like most good things that catch fire in the popular consciousness there is also the inevitable co-opting of well-intentioned movements and terms for their marketing power. These days organic is good business.

As a consumer, if you are truly concerned about purchasing coffee or other products that purport to be supportive of certain causes then you might want to familiarize yourself a little bit with some of the relevant terminology and certification requirements. We’ll look at some of the above certifications in the coming weeks, but for today let’s briefly focus on the term organic.

Among other things, the word organic implies natural healthiness, fullness of flavor, sustainable farming practices and no nasty chemicals. But just because something might say “organic” on a package doesn’t mean that it is necessarily as organic as you might wish it to be.

Most of us would rightly assume that a bag of coffee labeled as organic at the very least implies that it was grown and processed without the use of man-made chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. However, there are also different levels of organic certification. In the United States the USDA’s National Organic Program sets the standards for production and certification of organic food products. In addition to forbidding man-made pesticides and fertilizers they also require a period of time of two or three years of continued organic farming practice, stringent documentation, periodic auditing and testing of the soil and product.

Different countries may have different organic certification standards, or none at all. The USDA has determined that foreign government certification systems need not be identical to the U.S. system, but they do have to uphold the standards of the U.S. system. The key to insuring that a bag of organic coffee is in fact organic is in knowing that a USDA accredited third party agency has certified it as such and that it bears the USDA Organic label.

You may not be able to detect much of a difference between a cup of brewed organic vs. non-organic coffee, as most of the chemicals that may be present in non-organically farmed coffee are thought to be burned away during the roasting process. But there are other good reasons besides taste to choose organic coffee when it’s available.

It is fairly common knowledge that farming practices that avoid reliance on man-made chemicals and pesticides are more beneficial to the environment. Natural, low impact farming practices can maintain and replenish soil vitality in addition to enhancing the surrounding flora and fauna. Just as organic production methods help protect the environment, so too do they help protect the people who work the farms by minimizing or avoiding their exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.

Since 2000, the average growth rate for organic coffee sales in the United States has been over 25% annually. The rate of regular coffee sales has been consistent but less than 5% annually. As a result of this impressive growth the price that organic coffee farmers are able to get for their product has increased as well. Increasing returns are leading to more widespread emphasis on organic and sustainable farming practices. It’s a win-win for just about everyone involved.